Oh, hello, I didn't see you there. Welcome to this page about my mix for the 30th anniversary of Minidisc. You stumbled upon this page either because you received my Minidisc or were just clicking around. In any case, let me tell you a story about how I created this mix.

In 1992 I was already in a fairly conscious state and I remember the year clearly. What I don't remember, and discovered while creating this mix, is that much of the music I came to love found its origin in this year. Also I discovered that The KLF existed. Crazy stuff, what a guys.

Anyway, I started out with my memories of the period and compared them to Wikipedia's 1992 page. To my surprise they matched up quite well. There were a lot of significant events that year and after much editing I ended up with this summary of the thoughts I wanted to convey with the mix:

The Cold War is over,
Nuclear disarmament has begun,
A Digital Revolution is erasing borders,
The Environmental Movement is healing the planet,
It's the dawn of A New World.

Damn, so pretentious. If I added a question mark to the last line it would even sound ominous and prophetic!

Honestly, it started out as decade of positivity: old rivalries were put aside, new unions were formed, inequality become an issue to address, science took forefront in everyone's lives because of ecological survival and computer technology. It looked like a time of hope and change.

(spoilers: there were multiple genocides and famines before the decade was out)

How to capture this hopeful feeling in a mix? No idea. But I started out with the music I knew the best: electronic. So I listened to the classics like 2 Unlimited, Snap! and 2 Brothers on the 4th Floor. You know, what every Dutch kid had on their mix tapes. But it sounded dated. Great music, sure, but it didn't convey the feeling I was looking for, you know?

What I quickly discovered though is that there were many tracks I knew of that where much older than I thought. And with much older I mean they were coincidentally from 1992.

Then I discovered that my favorite music genre, Trance, has much of its roots in 1992. Evolving from House and Techno, the music that can convey emotions even without vocals was already a thing in the early 90s! The coincidence, perfect.

So I went through many playlists and CDs from the year. So much good music came out, also in other genres, but I wanted to find a flow between the songs and many tracks didn't fit.

When I did find something suitable there was the challenge of finding a high quality version of it. While many of the more known versions were readily available, the particular mix that I liked was often difficult to almost impossible to find, even when it was released together with the original track on the same single! Weird! Many journeys through the darkest corners of The Internet were made, and many files were deleted after Audacity showed that they were clipping like a fool. But I got them.

In the end, I think I ended up with a string of sound that conveys that belief I had about '92. I hope to have put together a playlist that captures both the sounds from the decade as it started, and those that were ahead of their time. Almost all tracks on here are from 1992, with the exception of 1.5 tracks. It's up to the bothered listener to find out which came out the year before.

For me it was a long but very satisfying journey. I hope you will enjoy listening to the result.

Three of the tracks have some skips in them but I believe they are present in all high quality versions of these tracks, or maybe even in the master?

This Playlist can only be burned onto Blue Minidiscs. Failure doing so negates the spirit of the Music. What were you Thinking?

It's a secret . I want to keep it a surprise until my match receives gets the disc and has a chance to listen to it.